Expanding Honda's Vision for Low-Carbon Living

2/20/2013 5:01:00 PM

Today's announcement of a new partnership between Honda and SolarCity, America's largest solar power provider, is an important step forward in Honda's effort to reduce CO2 emissions that contribute to global climate change. It is also an important contribution to Honda's overarching mission to create new value for its customers, so that Honda continues to be a company that society wants to exist.

The potential life-changing impacts of global climate change are far reaching, and it's our urgent responsibility to offer our customers products and technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Solar electricity is one of the most important tools we have to significantly reduce CO2 emissions and, with this program, to do so while reducing customers' energy costs.

Through this new partnership we will offer our Honda and Acura customers, as well as our U.S. dealers, the opportunity to switch to solar power for the majority of their energy needs with little or no upfront cost. This removes the single largest barrier to the broader adoption of solar power – the prohibitive initial cost for the solar system hardware and installation.

This unique program has the potential to put solar power on the roofs of as many as 2,500 homes and 10-20 dealers, reducing household CO2 emissions by as a much as 10,000 metric tons per year. Just as importantly, this initiative also creates a pathway for reducing CO2 emissions from electric vehicles – including all-electric vehicles like our Fit EV, plug-in hybrids like our new Accord Plug-In, and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles like our FCX Clarity. Using solar power for the home and the car, drivers can reduce the daily costs of living and driving, and make progress to the goal of a fully sustainable lifestyle.

This partnership, the first between an automaker and a renewable energy company, is also the first fruit of our business development efforts within American Honda's newly established Environmental Business Development Office, or EBDO, whose mission it is to think broadly about our environmental challenge and to propose new business and product strategies that help Honda realize its vision for a future of mobility that is sustainable from both an environmental and a business perspective.

With this initiative – and others that we will share in the coming months – we are envisioning a future in which low-carbon living is easy, and where our customers save money by reducing their CO2. This new partnership with SolarCity is just the beginning.